


At Our Best

by AnneKatherine



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Abduction, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Anakin Skywalker Has Issues, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Angst, Beating up anakin, Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fake Character Death, Force Suppression (Star Wars), Hallucinations, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, Hurt Anakin Skywalker, Hurt/Comfort, I've hyper fixated on star wars help me, Kidnapping, Married Couple, Miscommunication, Movie: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Pregnancy, Secret Relationship, The Force, Torture, Whump, anakin is half force, but its for the best, didn't even really edit this, kinda saves the day, or the whole universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:29:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28830450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnneKatherine/pseuds/AnneKatherine
Summary: The world mourns Anakin Skywalker. Some more than others.But he's not dead.Not yet anway.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 123
Kudos: 218





	1. zero weddings, one funeral, and a baby

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a fever dream, I have no idea where it's going or if it's going. 
> 
> Haley if you're reading this? Stop. Go suck you know who's fat nutsack.

If anyone had ever asked Obi-Wan what was going through his head that morning he wasn’t sure what he’d say. He was grieving, furious, and guilty. The things he was thinking that morning weren’t particularly Jedi like. Good thing no one ever asked.

The senate building wasn’t his favorite one in Coruscant, in fact, it was his least favorite. It was cold, he’d gotten lost more times than he’d care to admit, and it was always cold. Always. 

So as he strode out of the front lobby, after a particularly disappointing meeting with a few senators who were supposed to be on his side, he didn’t even really notice who approached him, just that they were in his way of getting back to the temple where he could meditate in peace.

“Obi-Wan I need to talk with you for a second.” 

Obi-Wan tried not to roll his eyes, “I really don’t have the time right now senator, we’re mounting an attack and-”

“It’s important... it’s about Anakin.” 

He finally spared a glance to them, and instantly frowned. Padmé Amidala. He’d meant to find her after the announcement about Anakin’s death, but with all the meeting and negotiations about what to do next, he’d forgotten. He still didn’t have time to spare for her.

“So is this strike. We think we’ve narrowed down where the separatist base is and-” He started

“Can you please just listen to me?” Padmé starts, “You don’t understand-”

“I don’t understand? I think you’re forgetting I was Anakin’s best friend. His mentor, his master, his brother. He told me everything. You were what? At best his girlfriend? At worst his mistress?”

She stares at him a moment, and if she’d had stronger force sensitivity, he’d bet all the credits he had, that he’d be in a force choke just then, instead she just pauses to collect her self and whispers, “Try his wife.”

She doesn’t wait for him to respond, just turns on her heel and walks towards the lobby door faster than Obi-Wan had been in the first place,

It takes him a moment to process, before he starts after her, “Wait Padmé! Wait!”

“What? Now you have time for me?” She doesn’t stop, or even turn around to look at him, “Realizing your brother didn’t tell you everything after all?”

He finally catches up to her, grabs her wrist and she turns to him silently fuming, he grimaces, “Forgive me, senator, it’s been a difficult couple of days.”

“You can imagine I relate.” She snipes back, then shakes her head, “I’ve been a fool to come to you. Please excuse me.”

She turns to leave, and Obi-Wan wonders how he ever managed to earn the title ‘Negotiator’. He catches her by the arm again, “Padmé seriously what is it?”

She looks at him a moment, “I’m pregnant.”

He freezes. He’s sure his eyes actually bug out a moment before he stutters, “It’s Anakin’s?”

The second the words leave his mouth he expects the slap across the face, but it stings nonetheless. He’s not sure if the shame of his insulting conclusion or the smack hurt worse, thankfully no one’s close enough to hear or notice.

“If Anakin were here with us now, he would’ve done much worse I assure you.” Padmé scowls at him,

“I know. Please excuse me, I’ve only just learned of his marriage let alone... I’m still wrapping my head around it all.” He says, 

“Well hurry up. If you can’t give me the help I need I have other places to visit today.” Padmé says, 

“The help you need? What exactly are your plans?” He asks,

She adjusts her dramatic senatorial dress uncomfortably, “I’m keeping it if that’s what you’re asking. It’s all I have left of him now.”

“And how do you intend to do that?” Obi-Wan wonders aloud, “And unmarried senator? I can’t imagine.”

“I am married, Master Kenobi. In case you’ve forgotten in the last few minutes.” She snipes back, 

He waves away her comments, “Yes, of course, but it’s a secret-”

“A secret due to Anakin’s job. Only his devotion to finishing the war kept him from leaving the order for me.” Padmé says, not meeting his eye,

“What? That’s insane!” He cries, finally catching a quick look from a bystander, they ought to move somewhere more private for the rest of this conversation,

“I don’t expect you to understand, as soon as the week is up I’ll announce my new status as a widow, and an expectant mother,” Padmé says,

“You can’t! It goes against all the order stands for!”

“What exactly has the order done for me? Fought a war I barely believe in? Taken my husband from me? Taken my child’s father? No, I don’t think I owe the order any favors at the moment.”

“Please Padmé-” Obi-Wan starts, trying to grab her wrist as she turns again,

“Stop Obi-Wan.” This time she pulls her arm away sharply and steps back from him, “I always thought of you as a friend of mine. Anakin always talked of what a good man you were. I hope you’re able to live up to his praises.”

She turns away from him on her heel, and he stands in shock.

Long after he’s gone, he manages to whisper, “I hope so too.”


	2. bad trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anakin gets drugged and has a really bad time of it, bonus bonding with his great grand master

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this is an hour and a half, and didn't even try to edit so if you see a typo let me know.
> 
> Haley instead of reading this why don't you go try and convince your (5 foot 11 and 3/4 foot tall) boyfriend to fuck you?
> 
> just got accepted to college so leave me a kudos as congratulations.

Anakin took a deep breath. 

This may not be particularly noteworthy to you, but it would be surprising to quite a few beings throughout the galaxy who, until then, assumed he was dead, Anakin included.

As the reinforcement of the separatist army joined in the fight, and his own troops began a hasty retreat, he’d completely resided himself to his own death. 

He didn’t remember blacking out, but he could feel a bump forming on the back of his head, and a ringing in his ear, it wasn’t hard to piece together what must have happened.

He didn’t remember much of anything from that day actually, only a snippet of that morning. 

Waking up in Padmé’s apartment, in Padmé’s arms. Meeting with Obi-Wan before the attack, talking to Rex and Cody as they strategize for the assault. He didn’t know where he’d gone wrong, he didn’t know how he’d lost the battle.

That’s what was eating at him as he laid on a table, missing one arm, the other bound to the table along with his ankles, and a force suppressing collar too tight around his neck, all he could think about was what his mistake could’ve been. 

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn’t notice Dooku entire the small quiet room. The man didn’t make his presence known for a moment, he just stared at the young Jedi.

“I suppose you’d like to know where you are,” Dooku said suddenly, snapping Anakin out of his thoughts, he looked to Dooku in shock, before a grimace settled on his face,

“Dooku.” Anakin “Come back for a rematch?”

Dooku huffs, “I’d hate to relieve you of your other arm, young Skywalker.”

Skywalker rolls his eyes, “I was padawan then, I’ve grown more experienced, you’ve grown older.”

“Age doesn’t always mean fragility Jedi,” Dooku says, “Especially when one lets the dark side empower them.”

“The only thing the dark side does is control you,” Anakin says, 

Dooku paces back and forth a moment, attempting to turn Skywalker at this point seems like a terrible waste of time, and he’s getting off track, “Do you want to know where you are or not?”

Skywalker stares at him, “Do you think I’m that stupid?”

“Yes, I think you’re plenty stupid,” Dooku replies, “But I don’t know what you mean.”

“Why on earth would you give me my location? The second I reconnect with the force I’ll be able to contact Obi-Wan and ask for help.” Anakin says, “It’s more likely you’ll give me the wrong place, let me use the force, and send Obi-Wan into a trap.”

“Very astute, Skywalker.” Dooku says, “Except I’m not particularly worried about you contacting Obi-Wan or anyone for that matter.”

“Oh, yeah?” Anakin shifts in his bindings, “I don’t know if anyone mentioned this to you before you betrayed the entire Jedi order, but I’m something of a chosen one.”

“Oh, I’m well aware of that.”

“Then you should know that force suppressing binders don’t work on me very well, at least not for long.”

“That’s exactly why I’m so excited about the time we’ll be spending together, there are lots of people who’d like to try a hand at subduing you.”

“Yeah, I’m used to that,” Anakin says, “No one’s had much luck yet.”

Dooku hummed in agreement, “I’ve been assured that this little experiment will have some kind of effect. Whether it diminishes your force presence or just hurts like a bantha, either way, it will be quite entertaining for me.”

Anakin looked over at him second, as he pulled a vial from his cloak, it was a putrid green color and little bubbles seemed to pop inside, “Hey! Hey, wait! I can’t give you any information if I’m delirious with pain.”

Dooku crooks his head to the side, “And you’ll give me information otherwise?”

Anakin draws his lips together in a thin line. There’s no getting out of this. He’d never give Dooku any information willingly, and even if he did, there’s no doubt in Anakin’s mind the sick bastard would just inject him anyway. 

He tries to lean away from the vial, but there’s not much give in his cuffs. He can barely see the thing when if finally pricks him in the neck. The initial pain is minimal, he can hear the injection be pushed in and braces his body for whatever side effects it will produce.

But nothing comes. 

Dooku is at the other side of the room now. How’d he get there so fast?

“You know I’m your great grandmaster right?”

Anakin sits up, his shackles have disappeared, “Oh yeah. I guess I forgot about that.”

“We have a lot in common you know.”

“No, we don’t.” Anakin says, furrowing his brow, “You’re a sith, you use the dark side.”

Dooku chuckles, and steps closer. Anakin checks his clothes for his lightsaber and realizes he has two hands. Two flesh hands, “What’s going on?”

“I’m telling you something, and you’re interrupting me.” Dooku says, he’s right next to him now, “That’s very rude young man.”

“I’m sorry,” Anakin says,

“Very well.” Dooku continues, “As I was saying, we’re very alike. We both have darkness.”

“What? No!” Anakin says, and hops off the table suddenly, “I’m not like you, I’m not dark.”

“The Tusken Raiders probably have a different point of view. The ones that are left anyways, did you leave any alive?”

Anakin blinked, “I don’t… I don’t know.”

“You didn’t check?” 

“I was distracted, I had to get my mom home.”

“Well, certainly the children were left right?” Dooku asks innocently, 

“No. I killed them too. I didn’t mean to, I was just so mad.” Anakin says, “My mom, Shmi, she didn’t deserve it. She was a slave her whole life, and then the way she died was so… gruesome. I lost control.”

“Hmmm.” Dooku considers, “Do you think she would’ve been proud of you?”

Anakin falls back to the table, “No.”

“Were the Jedi council proud of you?”

“I… I didn’t tell them. I only told Padmé.”

“Padmé Amidala?” Dooku says, “What did she think of it?”

“She was… troubled by it I think, but she could understand why.” Anakin says, not looking up at him, “She forgave me.”

“Forgave you?” Padmé scoffs, “How could I forgive that?”

Anakin looks to her, she’s standing next to Dooku dressed for the senate, in a big dress, with elaborate hair, but her face is pulled like she just ate something sour, “Padmé? What do you mean? I thought-”

“You thought I could ever forget that?” Padmé sneers, “You disgust me. You scare me. I only stay with you out of fear.”

“No… no that’s not true.” Anakin steps towards her and she flinches, “You love me. You said so.”

“I lied.” Padmé says, “All I can think about is getting away from you.”

“It sounds like Padmé didn’t forgive you, Anakin.” Dooku says, “The only person you told about that night thinks you’re a monster. How would the council react? How would your master react?”

“I’d be appalled.” Obi-Wan says Anakin whips around where Obi-Wan stands at the back of the room, “To find out that my own padawan was a failure? I’d be appalled and disappointed.”

“Obi-Wan?”

“Anakin.” Obi-Wan regards him, “It’s bad enough you couldn’t let go of attachment, but that night? What you did to the Tusken Raiders? Unacceptable. You are the very opposite of everything we stand for.”

“No.” Anakin says, “I’m trying! I try every day to be like you.”

“Like me?” Obi-Wan asks, 

“Yes. Like you!” Anakin says, “The perfect Jedi.”

“You will never be like me Anakin.” Obi-Wan says, “You were already damaged goods when we found you, what makes you think you’re so much better than the rest of the street trash enslaved on Tatooine?”

“Nothing.” Anakin says, “I’m not better than them.”

“No. You’re not.” Obi-Wan says, “If it weren’t for Qui-Gon’s need to adopt pathetic life forms on every trip we took, you’d still be at the beck and call of Watto, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.” Anakin admits, “I would be.”

“But Qui-Gon died.” Obi-Wan continues, “Before he’d had you around long enough to get bored of you, and you fell to me. Why do you think I kept you all these years?”

Anakin shrugged, “We’re friends. You were my master.”

Obi-Wan laughs, “Friends?”

Anakin just stares at him, “Yes… we’re friends?”

“You’re a burden to me. Raising you was Qui-Gon’s dying wish. I never chose you. I never would have.”

“Maybe at the start, but we’re a team!”

“Then why are you strapped to a table right now? Why am I not rescuing you?”

Anakin starts, “I’m not-”

But he was, he was strapped to a table. “I don’t understand. Why aren’t you guys helping me?”

“Helping you do what? Bother us more?” Padmé laughs,

“Dooku getting his hands on you is the best thing to ever happen, because, at long last, we are free of you.”

Dooku stepped closer to him and he struggled in his cuffs again, but his thrashing limbs did nothing against the solid metal. Even the force ignored his cries, and he cried out to it, over and over.

“Would you like to know where you are?” Dooku whispered

Anakin slammed his head against the table, and willed the tears that brushed against his lashes not to fall, before he murmured, “Yes.”

“Hell.” Dooku smiled, “You’re in hell, young Skywalker.”

As Anakin thrashed against the table over and over, he started to call out names, and parts of phrases, and pleas.

Dooku, and an attendant who was enthralled by the reaction of the drug watched from a few feet away.

“Is this supposed to happen, my lord?” the attendant asks, 

“I’m not sure.” Dooku says, “Tell me when it wears off, and we’ll try a dose of the next shipment, how many different trials are left?”

“Twenty-three, my lord, another dozen arrive tomorrow.”

Dooku nodded, “Write down whatever he says and keep notes of his reactions, I think at this rate we’ll be able to test all of the vials this week, right on track for next week’s batch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no plan for this, there will be a very questionable plot and the main goal will be to make Anakin Skywalker and all his friends suffer as much as possible. So just be prepared for that.


	3. magic plays here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Padmé throws up, Bail's a bro, kinda a filler, I just love Padmé&Bail friendship sry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haley you know the drill, don't read this, just sit at the harbor and wait for me, I'm only free from 240 to 420 though, I hope you don't have plans.
> 
> Everyone besides Haley? Yeah you can go ahead and read this.
> 
> The little jingle “magic plays here” has been stuck in my head so it’s then title sry

Maybe, Padmé thought, if she just stared at the paper in front of her long enough, the room would stop spinning.

She gripped the sides of her chair, and read the same word over and over again. Each time she got to the end of the sentence, her stomach lurched, and got closer and closer to getting sick all over her desk.

This baby was giving her a run for her money. Definitely a Skywalker.

She considered trying to get up and go to the ‘fresher, but every time she shifted her stomach churned even harder. She was stuck.

“Padmé, I need you to look over this bill, I’m trying to-” Bail appears in her doorway with a stack of papers, but stops short when he sees her leaning over her desk, “Are you ok?”

She shakes her head silently, “I think I’m going to be sick.”

He hesitates a second, before dropping the paper on her desk and rushing to her side, “Come on Padmé, I’ll help you.”

She grabs on to his side, and he helps her out of her chair, towards the ‘fresher.

She barely makes it to the toilet before she loses it, Bail pulls her hair away from her face and holds her hand as she gags. She’d give anything to go back to that morning when she decided to have her hair down the day, and slap herself in the face.

Morning sickness has never been that bad, up until today. All of a sudden she couldn’t even smell cheese without wanting to barf. 

Bail is quiet behind her, still just holding her hand, as she slowly stops throwing up, and just sits on the floor across from the toilet wearily.

“You should probably go see a medic or something,” Bail said finally, “To figure out what’s wrong, I heard there was an outbreak of the Csillian flu in Senator Baab’s office-”

“I’m pregnant,” Padmé said suddenly,

Bail stares at her, she can practically see the gears shifting in his head. She hadn’t been with him the day they’d announced Anakin’s disappearance and later death, but she’d taken the next day off, and Bail had given her a few pitiful glances for a week afterward.

“Oh, Padmé.” He said finally, and reaches over to hug her, she crumples in his arms, no one had held her like this since Anakin left. She feels the tears running down her cheeks and into Bail’s shoulder before she even registers she’s crying. She can’t bring herself to care, and just grips Bail’s shirt even harder and lets the tears roll.

She doesn’t know how long they sat there, but she eventually pulled away and leaned against the wall. Bail’s quiet a moment, before he asks, “Did he know?”

Padmé shakes her head, “I was going to tell him the day he left. I… I didn’t want to distract him though.”

Bail nods, “Doesn’t anyone else know?”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Padmé said, with a slight bitterness, she’d always liked the man. He was a good friend of Anakin’s, and a good Jedi. His reaction was a slap across the face, and she saw none of the kindness and generosity Anakin always spoke of.

“I can’t imagine he was pleased.”

“No. No, he wasn’t.” Padmé laughed, “He asked me who the father was.”

Bail gasped, “No!”

Padmé shook her head and shrugged, and Bail continued, “Maybe he didn’t know? It’s not something Anakin would advertise, especially to his former master.”

“He knew.” Padmé said, “I don’t think he meant anything by it, he was just in shock. He was grieving.”

“So were you.”

“Yes, but no one knew I was so close to him, at least not like a wife grieving her husband.”

“A wife?” Bail said, 

Padmé nods again, “We got married after Geonosis before he was knighted.”

“Geonosis?” Bail said, “That was three years ago!”

Padmé sighs, “Our anniversary is next month.”

“I’m sorry Padmé.” Bail takes her hand, “But what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to tell the truth.” 

“About everything? The marriage? The baby?”

“Everything,” Padmé said, 

“I can see why Obi-Wan wasn’t happy about that, it paints the Hero With No Fear in a completely different light.”

“He wanted to leave.” She said, “As soon as the war was over, he was leaving the order to be with me. Completely with me.”

“Then this is what he would’ve wanted.” Bail said, “He’s done fighting in the war, now he’ll get to be your husband and your child’s father, even if he’s not here anymore.”

Padmé nodded, “I know. I know he would’ve wanted me to come clean.”

“Then why haven’t you yet?”

“Because right now he’s all mine. Everyone has the Hero, the Jedi Knight, the general. I have Anakin Skywalker.” Padmé smiled wearily, “And I’m not ready to share him yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't watch human centipede oh my god, don't mention it in comments please for the love of god i couldn't sleep I want to bleach my brain


	4. i can't be tamed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> actually he kinda can
> 
> haley you know the drill, go suck some nuts and don't read this babe.
> 
> thanks to all the commenters they make my day

Dooku ran a hand over his mouth and sullenly watched Skywalker writhe on the table. 

Yes, it had been entertaining at first. It’d been entertaining for quite a while. But as time went on, Anakin’s force presence didn’t dim, didn’t even flicker. 

The torture had been purely psychological, with the exception of removing his prosthetic arm, the count hadn’t touched the young Jedi. But he was starting to grow impatient.

Realistically he knew that harming Skywalker wouldn’t speed up, or unlock the mystery behind removing one’s force sensitivity, but it certainly might make him feel better. 

And he had a very short window of time to figure out exactly how to do it, or his head would probably be on the chopping block next.

Dooku wasn’t a fool, he knew his master was grooming Skywalker to be his next apprentice, and he knew that the rule of two was an ancient sith tradition. It didn’t take much math to figure out who would be subtracted from the equation.

So he’d brought Skywalker as far away from his master as he could, and sent a request to every sketchy laboratory in the galaxy, promising a large reward for some concoction that could stripe an individual of the very thing that makes then able to use the force. 

If he could wipe away the immense power that Skywalker had, then he could threaten Sidious with the same fate, and finally, escape the man’s clutches. If all else failed though, he’d be getting rid of his successor.

But it was proving to be difficult. Not a single vial had worked so far. They’d caused hallucination, seizures, hysteria, sure. But the midi-chlorian count Anakin had was astronomical and hadn’t gone down even a digit. 

Injection after injection left Anakin shaking and delirious, but nothing had even begun to remove his power. 

And Dooku didn’t have much time until his master came to visit their prisoner.

So he stared at the pathetic former general who laid on the same table, gasping for breath, murmuring, pleas for mercy, and names, some Dooku recognized, some he didn’t. As he got closer he almost felt sorry for him.

He was sweating profusely, his hair had grown a little and was matted to his forehead. He’d been put on a liquid diet so Dooku didn’t have to deal with feeding the man, but it apparently wasn’t enough because his cheeks were growing hollow, and he could see the outline of his collar bones stick up.

“Take him off,” Dooku said to an attendant

“What?” The attendant asked

“Whatever drugs he’s on, take him off. I want to speak with him.”

“My lord, that could take-”

“I don’t care.” Dooku replied, “Just get him off them, tell me when he’s lucid.”

He turned and left the wretched room where Skywalker was being held and went to his own quarters.

It was a while till another servant came to get him, and Dooku wondered how they’d managed to flush the drugs from Skywalker’s system. He was surprised to find him on the table in almost the same condition as he’d left him.

“I told you to get me when he was lucid.” Dooku sniped,

“He is lucid, my lord,” the servant said, “The drugs, they caused hallucinations. Very realistic ones.”

“Hmm.” The count considered this, “So he’s lucid and fully aware of his surroundings, he just thinks he’s hallucinating?”

“Most likely, my lord.” The servant replied

“Interesting.” he said, then with a wave of his hand, “Leave us.”

The servant shuffled out of the room and left him and Skywalker alone. As he got closer he could see Anakin was in fact awake, just silent.

“Hello, my great grand padawan,” Dook said,

Skywalker swallows and weakly said, “I’m not your padawan.”

“He does speak then!” The count claps his hands, “I was worried you’d gone mute for a moment there.”

“I don’t care what you say,” Anakin murmurs, “I’m going to wake up soon.”

“Oh, I bet you will young Skywalker, till then why don’t we have a chat.” Dooku said, “Just you and me, we can get to know each other a little better.”

“I don’t want to know anything about you,” Anakin said, “You’re not even here. I don’t think you ever were.”

“Oh? Care to explain exactly what you think is happening then?”

“I probably died.” Anakin said with a shiver, “But I wasn’t accepted into the force.”

Dooku blinked, that wasn’t quite what he was expecting, “Why not?”

“I did bad things. I don’t deserve to be one with the force. I was never a good Jedi, I should’ve left while I could have. I could’ve been happy for a little while before… before this.”

“Before what?”

“My punishment. For what I did.” Anakin shivers again, and Dooku makes mental note to have a medic look over the young Jedi after this, Sidious would be very displeased if Skywalker died in his care.

“What did you do?” Dooku asks

“I already told you, you know what I did,” Anakin cries suddenly, shifting in his binds, “You don’t have to tell me again, you don’t have to bring her out and tell me why I deserve this, why I never deserve to be happy in the first place!”

“Who?” Dooku asks, 

“Padmé,” Anakin said, all of a sudden he’s quiet and restrained, “I don’t need her to tell me why I was always a bad husband, I know. Ok? I know. She already told me.”

Dooku blinked, he should’ve pulled Anakin off the drugs ages ago, this was much more productive. “You’re wife?”

Anakin said nothing, just nods.

“That’s against the Jedi code, to take a wife.”

“I know.” Anakin mutters, “Bad Jedi, bad husband. I know, ok?”

“Did Obi-Wan know about this? The council?”

Anakin shakes his head, “No. Never.”

“How do you think they’d react if they found out?”

Anakin paused a moment, “It doesn’t really matter now does it. I’m gone, they’ll have no idea what happened. Gone from the world, missing from the force. Like I never existed.”

“You’re not worried about being kicked out? Expelled from the order?”

“I was leaving anyway.” Anakin said, “As soon as the war was won, I was going with Padmé.”

“They’d never let you leave,” Dooku said quietly, more to himself than to Skywalker, but he heard him anyway.

“Any Jedi can leave the order whenever they want,” Anakin said

Dooku laughed, “You’re not any Jedi, Skywalker.”

“Yeah yeah, chosen one,” Anakin said, “Lot of good that did me.”

“You’re too powerful to be left Anakin, you do realize that?”

“I know that. Qui-Gon told me why.” Anakin said

This was news to Dooku, he’d never really been told precisely why Skywalker was as strong in the force as he was. He assumed it was some anomaly, the same way Yoda had a high midi-chlorian count.

“Well, then why?” 

“I have no father,” Anakin replied

Dooku didn’t care about his childhood sob story though, “Yes, but why are you so strong in the force?”

“I have no father!” Anakin replied

“So what? No Jedi has a father that’s the fucking point you fool! Tell me! Tell me why!”

“I have only the force.” Anakin said, “No father. My mother had no husband, no boyfriend. One day she was pregnant with me, and Qui-Gon claimed it was the force.”

Dooku stared at him waiting for Anakin to start laughing, waiting for Anakin to say anything or to make what he’d just said make a lick of sense.

“You’re saying the force… is your father?”

Anakin nodded, “That’s what Qui-Gon said, he never really explained it to me, I was only nine. Then he died. Obi-Wan doesn’t really like talking about it. Neither do I, to be honest.”

“You’re half force?” Dooku asked again,

Anakin nodded, “Yes, I just told you that. I already told you everything. Why are you asking me this stuff again.”

For the first time, Skywalker opened his eyes all the way and looked around. The room was drab and small, but he clearly recognized it from the first time he’d woken up there.

“Hey, wait!” Anakin said, “Am I awake?”

“Yes,” Dooku said, “But don’t worry, it won’t be long.”

“What?” Anakin said, “Let me out! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!”

He pulled at his binds and shook the table with effort, but they held. Dooku gave him one more look before he walked out the door, Skywalker yelling threats as he went.

“Start it back up, finish the round of whatever he was on,” Dooku said when the attendant from before found him, “But make a few calls. We’ve been going about this all wrong.”

“How do you mean my lord?” the attendant asked,

“Skywalker is a special case. It’s impossible to stripe him of the force because he is the force.” Dooku laughed to himself, “No it’ll have to be from within that I kill it.”

“Very good my lord,” the attendant said, and as he turned to the door to leave, he paused, “If you don’t mind my asking, how come the other Jedi haven’t realized Skywalker is captured, not killed. Would they not have felt his death?”

Dooku laughed again, “Good question. I’ll admit, I hardly understand the science behind the mysteries of the force, but thankfully the collar Skywalker wears is the only piece of technology I’ve been sent that had actually worked.”

“How so my lord?”

“It doesn’t cut Skywalker off from using the force, that’s impossible, I now know why,” Dooku said, “But it cuts every bond he’s ever had. Severs them at the root, the same way death would. I imagine it would feel exactly the same.”

“So that’s why no one’s gone looking for him?”

“Why would they send people to go looking for a dead body?” Dooku shrugs, “They’re at war, they can’t spare anyone right now, not even for their beloved hero.”

The attend stares at him a moment as if expecting him to go on, but Dooku is bored with him, “Don’t you have some calls to make? Or a prisoner to drug? Go make yourself useful.”

He nods quickly and lurches out the door, leaving Dooku alone in his chamber. He strokes his beard silently and thinks to himself.

Yes. this is it. This will work. He’s sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i put this together during ocean's class and missed the notes on clams, so y'all better like and or comment so I have something to make me happy when I'm crying about failing my clam test next week


	5. where have you been all my life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> my school is adding extra blocks of work because we aren't suffering enough. someone come put me out of my misery
> 
> not you Haley, babe fuck off? don't read this, thanks honey.
> 
> also i changed the summary of this story, because it kinda sucked

Obi-Wan often took refuge in the garden or in the halls of the temple when he was upset. It usually provided a quiet place to collect his thoughts and release his emotions into the Force.

But he’d lapped the halls twice now, and he was starting to get some weird looks. His head was still ringing. Another denial from the council, he winced remembering the rejection.

They didn’t want him anywhere near Grevious or Dooku, or anything worthwhile in the war effort, fearing he was too emotionally invested now. 

As if he wasn’t emotionally invested before? As if he hadn’t lost men before? It was an insult, a mockery. He was a Jedi Master!

Unlike Anakin. Obi-Wan thought to himself. Anakin never got to be a Jedi Master.

Obi-Wan finally took a seat, spotting one of the benches lining the seemingly endless hallway, and ran his hand down his face, tears pricking his eyes.

He was twenty-two. Twenty-two! He wasn’t even as old as Obi-Wan was when they’d first found him on the dust bowl.

Everything about those first couple days came back, his resentment towards Anakin, who was nothing but a child, who had no control over what had happened to his master, let alone what his master said or did. He’d called him pathetic. Dangerous. He’d hated a nine-year-old for no reason other than petty jealousy. Some master he was.

Maybe that was how he’d failed Anakin. Forced him to seek out the love he couldn’t provide elsewhere, from Padmé. Or maybe that was destined to happen anyway, he’d seen the way they were with each other, everyone with eyes could see that.

He hadn’t anticipated it going this far, marriage, a child.

Another failing of his was explaining the concept of contraception.

He was startled out of his thoughts by Ahsoka. She stood a few feet in front of him, awkwardly, looking like she was just about to say something but couldn’t.

“Ahsoka.” He said fondly, “It’s been a while.”

The tension in her body melted, and in a few steps she threw her arms around his neck, before he knew it she was crying into his shoulder, she whispered, “Obi-Wan,”

Again he was startled. Jedi weren’t usually so affectionate, but he supposed that Ahsoka was no longer a Jedi, and wrapped his arms around her in turn, holding her for a moment before she pulled away.

“I-I’m so sorry.” She said, looking to her feet,

He furrowed his brow, “What could you possibly be sorry for pada-Ahsoka?”

“I should’ve been there, if I had maybe I could’ve-”

“Been killed alongside him?” Obi-Wan asked, “Then we would be down our two best, wouldn’t we?”

She smiled sadly, “I could have helped.”

“Maybe,” Obi-Wan admitted, “But he wouldn’t have wanted you there, that much I know. It was a messy battle, one of our worst.”

Ahsoka nodded, “How did he...”

Obi-Wan thought a moment, “I didn’t see, we were all knocked out by a blast, Anakin was the closest to it. Some clones said they saw him jump on top of it, but by the time we all came to and realized he was missing… there was no trace of him anywhere.”

“No trace? Anywhere?” Ahsoka said,

“Believe me I know, I’ve been trying to get the council to approve a small mission back to the battlefield to look, but we’re stretched thin as is, they can’t spare anyone right now, not to look for a body.”

“I could go,” Ahsoka said, “I’m not a Jedi, I’ve got plenty of time.”

Obi-Wan shook his head, “I can’t let you go alone, besides Anakin wouldn’t want you to find him, not like that.”

She looked like she was about to say something, but Obi-Wan cut her off, “It was a huge blast, Ahsoka. Everything near it was pulverized… I don’t know what you expect you’ll find other than misery.”

“If we haven’t located his body, he’s not dead, Obi-Wan.” Ahsoka insisted, “He could still-”

“No. He couldn’t,” Obi-Wan said, and cut her off again, “Look at your bond.”

She winced and he knew she’d already checked it, but he continued, “I’ve only ever felt a bond break like that one time before. When Qui-Gon was killed in front of me. He’s dead. Whatever’s left of his body isn’t going to make you feel better.”

She was silent a moment, before launching at him again, and this time he hugged her back without hesitation, “I should’ve been there.”

“I was there,” Obi-Wan, “And if I lost you too… I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”

A sharp ring from Ahsoka’s comm ruins the moment.

“Kriff,” she cursed, then looks up at Obi-Wan apologetically, before answering it, “What is it- I’m in the middle of some-... what?”

She looks back to Obi-Wan, eyes wide, “No kriffing way, you’re kidding.”

She hangs up without saying goodbye, and stands there silently a moment, “Padmé’s pregnant!”

Obi-Wan winces, pinching the bridge of his nose, he thought he’d have a little more time before the news broke, but Ahsoka reads his expression right away, “You knew?”

“Yes?” Obi-Wan says, “Padmé told me shortly after Anakin’s disappearance, the day he was declared dead.”

“He… he didn’t know?”

Obi-Wan shook his head, “I don’t think so.”

Ahsoka slumps onto the bench, “This is such a mess… only Anakin could make this much of a disaster.”

Obi-Wan chuckles, sitting behind her, “Mysterious disappearance, and a pregnant wife? Sounds like Anakin.”

“I’m sorry wife?” Ahsoka, exclaims, “Is that even legal? Can Jedi legally do that?”

Obi-Wan shrugs, “I’m not sure any Jedi ever tried before.”

Ahsoka shakes her head bewildered, “When could he possibly have done that… we were always together, how could he sneak away long enough to get married?”

“They did it before he was knighted, in Naboo.” Obi-Wan supplies, at her shocked look he elaborates, “I did a little digging after she told me, it’s not hard to find their marriage license if you look, it’s a miracle this didn’t come out before.”

“Before he was knighted?” Ahsoka says, “When he was like twenty?”

“Nineteen,” Obi-Wan replies dryly,

Ahsoka throws her hands in the air, “Did I even know him?”

“Of course you did Ahsoka,” Obi-Wan said, “He considered you a little sister when you left… he was heartbroken.”

She looks at him again, tears brimming in her eyes, he says, “Don’t even say you wish you’d been there, he would’ve been glad you were far away, now that he’s gone, someone has to look after Padmé and his kid.”

She chuckles, “You’re going to be raising Skywalker’s for the rest of your life.”

“I know, but I’ve had a lot of practice at it,” He said, “Besides, I did a pretty good job the first time.”

“Yeah. You really did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my mom kept asking me what I was typing while I was writing this, and I kept saying it was homework, idk what she's gonna think when my grades come back and they suck and she's like how do you suck this bad, if you're always doing hw??


	6. lookin' like a true survivor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more angst ur welcome, 
> 
> haley if you're reading this please call me

There were very few times Dooku had been truly frustrated in his entire life.

Anakin Skywalker was proving to be the most trying of challenges he’d ever faced. 

He wasn’t a difficult prisoner, at least not while under the influence of a steady stream of drugs, though when he got breaks of clarity he was rather aggressive, it wasn’t hard to put him back down.

He wasn’t even actively fighting against Dooku’s plans, and that’s what made it all the more maddening. This failure was entirely on his shoulders, it was his own fault.

Taking it out on the poor Jedi might not have been the most mature of responses, but he’d been at the end of his patience, for a while. Injecting a small vial of his own personal concoction into Skywalker’s neck had been satisfying initially, that’s for certain.

It was a little concerning when Skywalker starting to cry out, and try to fold in on his stomach.

Dooku watched curiously, stepping closer, he could hear the man say softly, “Hurts, hurts, hurts.”

“What hurts?” Dooku asked,

Skywalker looked up at him in surprise, he opened his eyes wide, they were so bloodshot they looked entirely red, “Everything.”

And then he started to shake, his whole body rocked back and forth, and his head stretch back further than Dooku previously thought possible, he was about to ask for an attendant, when one appears in the doorway.

“He’s seizing, my lord.” the servant says after they watch him a moment

“Well, help him.” Dooku gestures to Anakin, still shaking on the table,

“We’d have to remove his cuffs, my lord.”

“He doesn’t exactly pose much of a threat right now, does he?” Dooku says, “If he dies, you’ll join him shortly.”

The attendant flushes, leans back into the hallway to call for help, before going to Anakin’s side and unlocking his feet. Soon more servants joined him and started to diagnose him, as soon as his limbs are free.

Dooku watches with passive interest, as attendants rush around him, he almost doesn’t notice the small table in the corner begin to float into the air.

It’s not long until his own feet start to float above the floor, the attendants around Anakin are already a foot in the air, Anakin isn’t even paying attention, he’s just writhing on the table thrown into another seizure.

Anakin, free from his shackles floats above the table only an inch, while everyone else in the room is elevated feet off the ground, going further up by the second.

Dooku can’t do anything about it either, too far away from the walls, with nothing close enough to where he floats to do anything but flail in the air.

Skywalker stops shaking after a second, but everything remains still in the air, no longer floating upwards, but not dropping to the ground either.

Dooku shifts uncomfortably, he could strangle Skywalker, was this his plan all along? Fake a seizure and escape?

It didn’t look likely considering Anakin only managed to sit up after another minute and look around confused. He stared up at everyone and everything in shock before slowly jumping off the table, and immediately falling to his knees.

No, Dooku decided, this wasn’t a coordinated escape attempt, this was Skywalker’s powers going haywire. Since his collar removed his connections to the force, but not his ability to wield it, he had no control over what happened.

Anakin managed to pull himself back up to his feet after a second, and he looked to Dooku, “Where am I?”

Dooku all but laughed, “Somewhere you’ll never get away from.”

Skywalker looked like he wanted to snipe back but just glared instead, before deciding against it. He went out the door of the small room quickly, and all the items and people in the room dropped to the ground as Skywalker got further away.

As soon as Dooku was down, he started after his prisoner, he hadn’t been able to get far, half-starved, weak, and delirious. 

Dooku smiled to himself when he saw Anakin limping towards an empty ship, probably hoping to get off-planet before anyone could find him, but Dooku had spent a while with the man, while he was entirely filterless. He knew his deepest secrets, he probably knew him better than his Jedi master, or his wife.

And he knew exactly what Anakin would do next.

“Leaving so soon?” Dooku drawled, and Anakin whipped his head around startled, 

“Afraid so,” Anakin said back, recovering quickly, “You should really learn a thing or two about hospitality before you have guests over.”

“Noted,” Dooku said, reaching his arms out his fingers crackled with force lightning for a second before they shot out of his fingers towards Skywalker.

The Jedi realized what Dooku was doing a second before the lightning shot at him, without thinking he threw his hand in front of his face, with his palm splayed out flat, and braced for the inevitable burn of lightning coursing through his body.

There was no burn. There was pressure all over his hand, it got heavier and hotter with each second, but it felt nothing like the other numerous, and he means numerous, times he’d been electrocuted with force lightning. 

He opened his eyes cautiously, his hand was glowing. Force lightning hit it but didn’t travel through his body, instead he absorbed it.

Dooku looked just as shocked as he was, but his determination and his lightning didn’t waver, he pushed harder, put more power into his attacks, and drew more energy from the dark side.

It wasn’t enough though, Anakin could take it, he wasn’t going down. He started to move towards the ship slowly, all the while absorbing the lightning from the older sith.

“Stop!” Dooku cried out, shoving another powerful burst of lightning Anakin’s way, his hand grew hotter and brighter, but it didn’t hurt, “I’ll kill you!”

Anakin grimace but didn’t respond, unsure about how long he could hold off the attack, while keeping up the banter, he was close enough to the ship now, if he had another hand he’d be able to open the door while still blocking the attack, but he hadn’t seen it since he arrived in Dooku’s dungeon.

Instead, he focused on the force, and will the door to open. It didn’t.

He closed his eyes a moment, meditating, imagining the door filing open giving him just enough time to force push Dooku out of the way and start the ship before he was back with more lightning, that Anakin had no idea how to block.

The door didn’t budge.

“Need a hand?” The sith asked, and Anakin rolled his eyes, 

“Well, I only need one to fend off this pathetic attack!” He replied, and he experimentally pushed the lightning he was absorbing back at the man, which send a small wave of lighting back towards Dooku.

The sith, just like Anakin, didn’t actually know how to block force lightning, as far as Anakin knew, no one did.

The burst blew Dooku off his feet for a second, and Anakin used the break in lightning to rush to the door when a familiar burn hit his back.

How had Dooku gotten up that fast? Anakin wondered as he fell to the ground shaking. How had he shot a pulse of lightning at the same time he was hit with his own?

In a second Anakin was on the ground, the burn of lightning stung throughout his body, he heard a low chuckle, “I told you to be more careful with your toys Tyranus.”

That wasn’t Dooku. Before Anakin could look up at the source of the new voice, another wave of lightning hit him, and he stumbled into darkness.

Dooku looked at the limp man on the floor curiously. Just seconds ago he was holding off force lightning, which Dooku wasn’t even aware was possible with the exception of maybe a highly skilled master like Yoda. Now he just laid on the floor, flinching every so often as the lightning burned through his body.

“Master,” Dooku said finally bowing to the man, he hadn’t been expecting Palpatine to arrive so soon, he’d made it inconvenient on purpose to give himself more time with Skywalker.

“My apprentice,” The sith grinned, “Nearly let our guest escape.”

A cold hand grasped his chin firmly, and Palpatine jerked his face up, “If it weren’t for me… I expect Skywalker would already by on his way back to Coruscant.”

“Yes, Master.” Dooku conceded, “Thank you, master.”

“Don’t grovel,” Palpatine let go of his chin and in the same breath slapped him, Dooku barely flinched expecting the hit, even accepting it. He had almost let Skywalker go after all. 

But the Sith seemed to blame his incompetence for the disaster, he didn’t suspect Dooku was scheming behind his back, at least not yet.

Servants retrieved Anakin’s body in silence and bring him back up to the cell, he orders them to secure stronger cuffs this time, and up security, but it’s just for show. Everyone knows now if Anakin gets out again, there’s little anyone can do to stop him.

“You didn’t suppress his force abilities then?” Palpatine asks, 

“It’d be rather pointless, his connection to the force isn’t like others,” Dooku explains, “He is the force, eventually he’d break through any damper I put on him.”

“I see,” his master said quietly, almost to himself, 

“Instead I commissioned a different kind of device,” Dooku explains, “Instead of cutting off Skywalker's force abilities, it cuts off his connections, his bonds. If Skywalker was missing, they’d have entire platoons out looking for him, but as soon as his Jedi friends felt his bond go dark, they assumed him dead.”

“Most inventive, my apprentice,” Palpatine murmurs, “I do have one question though”

Dooku nods eagerly, glowing at his master praise despite himself as if he wasn’t aware Palpatine was actively trying to replace him.

“Skywalker’s unique connection to the force, would you… elaborate?”

Dooku resisted the urge to roll his eyes, of course, that’s all he would pick up on, “He claimed to have no biological father. That one day his mother was simply pregnant. His midi-chlorian count was off the charts, and before Qui-Gon died, he suggested that Anakin was conceived by the force.”

“Interesting.” Palpatine said, “Do you think his abilities would be genetic?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Master,” Dooku responded stunned, what exactly was he planning on doing to Skywalker?

“Padmé Amidala has made an announcement recently,” Palpatine said, “That she was secretly married to Skywalker, and that she is pregnant with his child.”

Dooku stands there for a full minute in a stupor, not exactly becoming of a count but very few things have truly taken him by surprise as that did.

He was truly fucked then. If Palpatine didn’t manage to seduce Anakin to the dark side, all he had to do was kidnap a defenseless baby who was probably just as overpowered as its father.

Skywalker had managed to ruin Dooku’s plan without even trying yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like updating on the same day wandavision airs because while I deal with the overwhelming dread that I have to wait another week for an episode, I get nice comment's from y'all


	7. i owe it all to you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was so good about having multiple chapters lined up before posting day and now they're all used up and I'm rapidly panic writing the day before, old habits I guess, my friend just called to hang out w me and now I have to go get gas, kms
> 
> I'm sorry haley, please just let me know if you're ok? answer my texts

Ahsoka doesn’t know how long she can stay. To be honest she doesn’t know how long she should stay.

Everywhere she goes is a reminder of him, their place in the temple, where her room was untouched. The gardens where he’d take her when he was trying to escape meditation with Obi-Wan. She could think of a story for every hall she walked down, and at the end of every corridor, she expected him to show up and ask her.

“Did you really think I was gone?” He’d be grinning, and his face wouldn’t be covered in cuts and bruises and dirt, he’d just open his arms and she’d run to him, and she’d promise him.

“I won’t leave you. I won’t ever leave you.”

But he was never there. She’d left him.

Obi-Wan didn’t need her help, not now anyway. He was throwing himself into the war as if he hadn’t already given enough.

She could understand his passion. He wanted to get justice, to right the wrongs. But the more insistent he was that they put him back on the front lines, the more the council held him back.

She was allowed to sit in on meetings, though she suspected it was a ploy to get her to rejoin the order, she was grateful nonetheless. It was disheartening, to hear Obi-Wan ask time and time again to be allowed back into the fray of war, only to be rejected. Sidelined.

It must’ve been happening for sometime before Ahsoka even showed up because Obi-Wan finally lost his composure after being brought in for an assignment at long last.

“There was so unusual force activity on an Outer Rim planet, Master Kenobi, we’d like you to investigate and report back your findings,” Mace told her grandmaster,

Obi-Wan stared at them in disbelief, and Ahsoka cringed inwardly. He’d been so excited when he found out he was being given an assignment, the first since Anakin’s death, they’d both expected him to be placed back on the front lines, but this was yet another dismissal.

“An Outer Rim planet?” Obi-Wan said, “That hardly seems like a priority at the moment.”

“Many priorities, Kenobi we have,” Yoda replies, 

“Are we not already stretched thin?” Obi-Wan demands, shocking the council and Ahsoka especially, “Why won’t you return me to active duty, where I could actually make a difference, instead of investigating pointless squabbles in some backwater cesspit?”

The council was silent, they conferred silently maybe with their expressions alone, or perhaps through the force, but after a moment Mace turned back to Obi-Wan and it was clear they were in agreement.

“There is much anger in you Kenobi.” Mace started, and Obi-Wan scoffed, “Understable anger of course. Anakin was your padawan and it is a tragedy whenever a Jedi is lost.”

“He wasn’t just lost Master Windu,” Obi-Wan says, “He was murdered.”

“That’s the problem Master Kenobi,” Plo Koon chimes in, “We fear your anger over Anakin’s untimely death might fuel… retribution. That kind of revenge lead to the dark.”

Obi-Wan glares at the council, “Fine. I’ll just go where I’m not needed, deepest sympathies to those who die because your council was too afraid I couldn’t do my job without falling.”

He turned on his heel and was out the door before Ahsoka could even say goodbye to the rest of the council. She quickly nodded to them instead, before taking off after Obi-Wan.

“What was that?” Ahsoka exclaimed, as soon as she caught up to him, “I swear to god did Anakin possessed you!”

“Yes, I suppose that display would’ve made him proud.” Obi-Wan replied, “You’re coming with me?”

Ahsoka blinked, she hadn’t expected an invite, and the council certainly hadn’t authorized it. But a glint in Obi-Wan’s eyes was telling her to go as if her grandmaster might find trouble on some desolate outer planet just to spite the council.

“I think Master Windu’s going to have a headache for the next week,” Ahsoka chuckles, “Just when he thought he was free from Skywalker-induced migraines for the rest of his life.”

“Well, someone had to step up to the plate,” Obi-Wan smirks, “It’ll be a while till the kid can annoy Mace to an early grave.”

Ahsoka looked to Obi-Wan in shock. Since Padme’s announcement, they hadn’t spoken about her master breaking the code or the child. None of the Jedi have, though the HoloNews went beserk.

It seemed the council decided to let it slide, maybe considering the man had given his life for the order and their way, or maybe because they just didn’t want to deal with another Skywalker mess. 

“So any idea what exactly we’re looking for?” Ahsoka says finally,

Obi-Wan shakes his head, “I forgot to ask for specifics when I was storming out dramatically, I guess we’ll just have to wing it.”

“We both have a lot of practice doing that, thanks to Anakin,” Ahsoka grins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my cat's watching turkey's walk through my backyard it awe it's so cute
> 
> I can't wait for wandavision to air the rest of its episodes so I can write for it


	8. if you like piña coladas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and getting caught in the rain
> 
> fucking love that song.
> 
> Posting this on Monday-it's Saturday today, and I have a ton of wandavision theories, leave your hot takes in the comments I'd love to read them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to finish another 3 part fic, I'm done w the first chapter and I just started the 2nd, it's just shy of 3k words right now. I wanna get it done before I finish this fic and another fic (different fandom... unless anyone here watched the 100, in which case go check it out), so I can post this on Monday, the WIP on Wednesday, and the other one on Friday.
> 
> That would be so satisfying. But I'm trying to have the whole thing written before I do that which I always suck at because I have no self-control and crave immediate satisfaction. it is for star wars prequels tho, so if you wanna read it when it comes out, make sure you sub to my account!
> 
> \- it's monday now and I woke up to the worst cramps of my life :)

Anakin is freezing cold when he wakes up, but that’s not what rouses him. Instead, it’s the prick of a needle going into his neck. It’s a familiar feeling at this point but he flinches away anyways, less in pain and more in dread of what he knows comes next.

He hadn’t noticed the drowsy tingling that spread through his body the first time he was dosed by whatever Dooku had vials and vials of, but as he was drugged more and more, he became aware of the side effects.

His vision would fade in and out, the tips of his fingers and toes would sting, and worst of all a pounding headache thumped in the back of his head, so hard he wanted to slam his skull into the table he laid chained to. They’d propped up his neck the first time he tried and though the metal dug into his skin, it did nothing to relieve the aching.

He could hear someone speaking nearby, he wasn’t sure if it was towards him, but he couldn’t make out any actual words they say, so it didn’t really matter.

As the speaker got closer Anakin could make out two different voices, and he could understand more words.

“-full sedated?” One asks,

“Entirely,” Another responds, “-going anywhere.”

And then they were right next to him, standing on either side of his body. He tries to reach his arm out towards one of them but it stays limp at his side, he couldn’t even move his neck to turn to them. All he could do was lay on the flat table, shivering uncontrollably.

They must’ve taken his shirt before when he was sick. He misses it, it had kept him moderately warm for his stay so far, and without it, the drips of water from the ceiling fell directly onto his skin, and the air that moves throughout the room chills him.

“I need a minute with him,” The more unfamiliar voice says, “Alone. My apprentice.”

“That’s hardly necessary master, he’s fully contained as you can see,” the second responds, Anakin recognizes him as Dooku now.

“Then it won’t be a problem?” Dooku’s master asks, “Will it?”

“Of course not.” 

The Sith master didn’t respond, but he heard a set of footsteps reluctantly leave the cell Anakin was locked in. And they were alone.

The sith walks away at first, Anakin still couldn’t see him, but he could hear clicking and typing when suddenly the table shifted, and he starts moving upright.

The chains were tight around his wrist, and ankles so as he shifts vertically, they dug into his skin. With one arm missing though the chains were unbalanced and when he got to almost completely vertical he almost fell forward.

A hand caught him, with a sinister laugh. In his shock at moving, Anakin had forgotten about his company. His eyes shot upwards to who was holding him against the table and he gasps in shock.

Fake Palpatine stares back at him grinning.

The pain of being held up by his limbs seems to have woken him up a little, he could move his neck and his fingers.

“You-” Anakin slurred, pausing and taking a breath before trying again, “You?”

Fake Palpatine nodded, “It’s me, my boy. Always has been.”

“No.” Anakin winces at the Sith’s glib manner, he moves his hand from Anakin by then and pushes the table Anakin was locked to back so he wasn’t leaning forward, then he starts to circle Anakin like a predator stalking prey.

“This is a hallucination.” Anakin decided, “Like Padmé, and Obi-Wan. This isn’t real- you’re not-”

“Not real?” Fake Palpatine taunted, taking a scalpel off a nearby tray quickly and digging it into Anakin’s side in the same swift move, “If I’m not real, how did I do that?”

Anakin’s scream echoes in the halls for a moment, before it was silent again, Anakin wasn’t sure if his hallucination expects him to respond or not, but he wasn’t planning on giving it the satisfaction.

“What did those hallucinations say to you, my boy?” Fake Palpatine asks, “Did they hurt your feelings?”

Anakin only grunted, the scalpel still in his side, above his hip, Fake Palpatine scoffs at his silence and drags it further across his skin, towards his back. 

“Answer me.”

“They were my worst fears-” Anakin gasped, Fake Palpatine let go of the scalpel as soon as he replied, “They told me they hated me, they never loved me, that they were scared of me.”

“How did that make you feel?”

Anakin pauses in thought for a second when Fake Palpatine grabs the scalpel again he blurts out, “Terrible. Worthless. Dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Fake Palpatine asks, “Isn’t that what you are? A Jedi Knight? The Chosen One?”

Anakin shrugs helpless trying to think of some response before Fake Palpatine took the knife in his side and further, “I don’t know maybe.”

“You could be more than dangerous Anakin.” Fake Palpatine says, “You could be powerful.”

“I-I don’t want to be a Sith.” Anakin says, “I’ll never join you- whoever you really are.”

“Oh?” Fake Palpatine asks, digging the scalpel deeper into his back instead of dragging it this time, “Not even for your wife?”

“My wife?” Anakin repeats, tears brimming his eyes falling the longer Fake Palpatine presses the knife, “My wife would leave me if I joined the Sith- She hates them!”

“Not even to save her?” Fake Palpatine says, letting go of the knife and stepping towards him, Anakin flinches as he nears.

“Save her?” Anakin pants, “From what? Do you have her? What did you do to her?”

He lunges forward towards the Sith, but the rest of his body is still numb from whatever drug he’s been injected with now, and he only manages to slump over himself and make his hallucination cackle.

“I’ll show you, my boy,” Fake Palpatine says almost soothingly, “You’ll see.”

Fake Palpatine presses his fingers to either side of his temples, and suddenly the room isn’t just cold, it’s piercing, he can see his breath in front of him.

Padmé sits on a table, not unlike the one he’s on, and she’s crying out over and over again in pain. Surrounded by medical droids and Obi-Wan who stands a little further away from her, looking on in concern.

She clutches her stomach in another fit of pain, and Anakin wants to charge towards her, but his feet are stuck. He can’t get any closer or look away. All he can do is watch as his wife screams in pain.

It feels like hours when he opens his eyes to Fake Palpatine’s grinning face. He’s still in his cell, strapped to the table, but he’s dripping sweat now, and tears have long since fallen, and run down his face.

“What-” He gasps, “What was that?”

“The future, my boy,” Fake Palpatine replies, “Yours. Your wife’s. She dies during childbirth.”

“She’s not pregnant,” Anakin says,

“Do you not get HoloNews here?” Fake Palpatine looks across the empty room, “It’s all they can talk about nowadays, Padmé Skywalker-Amidala, widow of General Anakin Skywalker: Pregnant.”

Anakin furrows his brow and somehow gets the strength to heave his body back towards the table so he’s not slumped over anymore. 

“You’re lying,” Anakin whispers,

“Oh what a shame,” Fake Palpatine says, “I guess you were the last to know.”

“Even if what you’re saying is true-” Anakin starts, “Which… it’s not. She’s on Courscant. Not some backwater Outer Rim world. Why would she-how would she-”

“I never said it was of natural causes, Jedi.” Fake Palpatine says,

“You said-”

“I said she dies during childbirth.” Palpatine shrugs, “And she does.”

Anakin stares at the man before him in silence, he crosses his arms and stares right back. With every breath he takes, his limbs grow lighter, more under his control, he’s surprised by how quickly this latest dose has worked through his body, he almost doesn’t notice the door begin to creak.

The door to his cell is very thick, large, and heavy. Throughout his imprisonment, it remained open, mostly due to the fact he was literally chained to a table, but also because of the sheer amount of effort required to close and open it.

It really shouldn’t be creaking.

But it did, before it starts to move back and forth, shaking. Like the table next to Anakin, and the discarded trash left on the floor. Everything in the vicinity of the room starts to rumble.

Fake Palpatine looks at the room in surprise, whipping his head to Anakin, “Stop it!”

“I-I don’t know how!” Anakin replies panicked.

The Sith grabs the knife still in Anakin’s back and slices back towards his stomach, as Anakin cries out in pain, the scalpel suddenly flies out of his side and towards the nearest wall, taking the Sith gripping it with him.

But Anakin doesn’t even look, he screams instead, he can feel the Force, it’s so close, but not quite in his grasp. With a breath he lunges forward again, this time pulling at the metal chains on his limbs, and they come free, landing at his feet as he drops to the floor.

He glances back at the Sith, expecting his hallucination to break or murmur, allowing him to see the real identity of the Sith master, but all he sees is Palpatine glaring back at him, scrambling to his feet, so Anakin takes off.

He wastes no time, already knowing the layout and what he needs he sprints through hallways, barefoot, and dripping blood, with Fake Palpatine hot on his heels.

He arrives at the aircraft he’d attempted to take the first time, a lot sooner. He flung open the door seconds before Fake Palpatine stops short behind him, throwing out a hand full of force lighting.

Again, Anakin let his instincts take over, and threw another, slightly less confident hand out to meet his, absorbing the lightning, but stopping him from readying the ship for take-off.

“You’re still stuck Skywalker!” Fake Palpatine yells, “Dooku will be here soon, and you know you can take the both of us!”

“To be fair, last time I didn’t think I could take even one of you!” Anakin cries back, “But I keep surprising myself.”

Fake Palpatine rolls his eyes and steps closer, Anakin can feel the power behind his hand grow and he thinks he might just have enough time to blast the force back at Fake Palpatine before Dooku shows up to overpower him.

The ground still rumbles, but not as dramatically, though with every second Anakin blocks Fake Palpatine lightning the trembling grows louder.

Anakin readies himself for the blast when Dooku arrives in the hangar, his hand already outstretch crackling with lightning, Anakin closes his eyes and braces himself for the attack, turning slightly towards Dooku.

Instead of the burn of lightning he expects, he hears a cry and a crack, opening his eyes just in time to see Fake Palpatine fly through the air towards Dooku, as a shock wave of lightning shoots away from Anakin.

Fake Palpatine lands behind Dooku, and Dooku’s struck by the lightning, all in a matter of seconds. Anakin stands there in shock a second before they both begin to move a little, and he remembers he needs to get away before they get up.

He doesn’t know what he just did, how he just did it, or if he can do it again. Or if he wants to.

He climbs up to the cockpit in a matter of seconds and starts keying in coordinates, when the entire ship starts to rock, lightning crackles on the outside of it and he can feel it burn his skin as it makes its way in.

The first crackle of lightning hits his leg, and he cries out, just in time for the next to hit his arms. He doesn’t realize the ship shakes even more now, as the ground it sits on trembles.

Outside the ship, the floor in the hangar cracks, walls collapse suddenly, and roofs cave in.

“Stop!” Palpatine says and lunges towards his apprentice,

“He’ll get away!” Dooku cries and realigns his lightning, Palpatine shoves him to the ground, and as soon as the lightning dies out, the ship in front of them clumsily takes off,

“He would’ve killed us all.” Palpatine glowers, “If not for your ludacris experiments, I could’ve broken him weeks ago!”

“I’m-I’m sorry master,” Dooku says,

“Oh force, you will be,” Palpatine promises, turning on his heel to the ruined buildings.

In Anakin’s ship, the control panel beeps angrily at him, most of the buttons and devices fried by lightning, the more Anakin toys with them, the less they seem to work.

They certainly aren’t accepting coordinates right now, so Anakin gives up on telling them to bring him there, instead of instructing him to take him to the next closest habitable planet, and prays to the force.

The longer he sits in the pilot’s chair the more tired he gets, all the adrenaline from the escape and his fight are wearing off, and he can barely keep his eyes open.

He’s asleep when the ship alerts him he’s landing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I love beating this bitch up. Thanks to people who continue to read, ur comments give me life!!


	9. the stars look very different today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> song lyrics from my fav song comment below if you know it! 
> 
> I didn't edit this sorry in advance.
> 
> Haley please let me know you're ok? Or call your mom at least she's worried about you. I am too.

The planet they’re being sent to is so far away from the Core it takes them a whole day to get there. They end up hitching a ride with a relief outreach program for underdeveloped planets in the Outer Rim, that was spearheaded by Padmé.

She was happy to arrange their transport when they’d asked, and not even an hour after they were assigned this wild goose chase of a mission, they were on their way.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka mostly kept to themselves on the unfamiliar aircraft. It was filled with doctors and mechanics from dozens of different worlds, none of whom seemed interested in their Jedi-hitchhikers.

“I don’t see why we could take one of our ships-” Ahsoka starts, but Obi-Wan just shushes her,

“I’m not going to take a ship for a pointless mission that takes two days round trip, in the middle of a war Ahsoka.” Obi-Wan replies, “I might be irritated with the council but I’m not petty.”

At her huff of annoyance, he continues, “Besides, we’ve got such pleasant company. Why don’t you go befriend a doctor.”

“I don’t think any of them even know we’re here Master.” Ahsoka says, “We’re not even going to the same planet, and they’re making a pit stop just to drop us off. I doubt they want to chit chat.”

Obi-Wan shrugs, “Then regale me with your adventures since leaving the order, I’ve been rather bored without… Anakin lately.”

“Ok, but you have to promise not to get mad.” Ahsoka prefaces, and Obi-Wan holds his hands up in surrender, “Well then just a disclaimer, this particular fight wasn’t my fault-”

They talk so long that by the time Ahsoka’s trying to conceal her yawns, the ship is empty. Obi-Wan looks up surprised, glancing at a clock, “When did it get this late? Has everyone already retired?”

Ahsoka looks around, “I guess so,”

Obi-Wan rises from the small chairs they’d been sitting in and offers Ahsoka a hand, “I suggest we do the same then, Pada-Ahsoka.”

She ignores his slip, takes his hand, and follows him towards the back of the ship, bidding him goodnight before entering her own small room. There’s not much in there, just a small bed, and an attached ‘fresher. Ahsoka had been on her own so long at that point she didn’t care, nearly collapsing, asleep before her head hit the pillow.

She wakes in the garden of the temple. It’s a beautiful day, birds fly between trees, and light streams through the plants that surround her. She’s sitting in a meditative pose, legs crossed, and her hands placed on her lap. 

Wasn’t she just on a ship? Where was Master Ken-

“Did I say you could get up Snips?” Anakin asks, probably trying to sound mad, but failing. He sits directly across from her in the same pose, with his eyes closed.

“I-I… No.” She replies and settles back into her pose, but she doesn’t close her eyes, just stares at him.

After a second he opens his eyes too, and relaxes with a smile, “Fine fine, I’m not a fan of meditation either. Don’t tell Obi-Wan I let you quit early though.”

She smiles back uneasily, “Your secrets are safe with me.”

He cocks his head to the side, “Is it?”

“Yeah-of course it is...” Ahsoka says, “Why would you think-”

“I mean is anything safe with you?”

“What?”

“Can you keep anything safe, Snips?” Anakin repeats, “Can you protect anyone? Anything?”

“Yes!” Ahsoka nearly yells, the echoes of her yells send birds flying from their nests, she looks to the sky as she continues, “I’m- I was a Jedi Padawan, I can keep people safe, I can-”

“You couldn’t keep me safe.” He points out, she snaps her eyes back to him and stiffens.

He’s covered in ash and dirt now. Dripping blood from his mouth and nose, he’s pale and breathing heavily, but other than that he acts like nothing’s wrong at all.

“I wasn’t there- I didn’t know-”

“You left.” Anakin says, “You left me alone, and I died. If you had been there, maybe I’d be alive right now.”

“Or maybe I’d be dead too,” Ahsoka whispers, remembering what Obi-Wan had told her hours before.

Anakin shrugs, “Maybe. I guess we’ll never know.”

Ahsoka nods in agreement, peeking at her former master, to find he’d gone back to normal, no blood or dirt on him.

“I guess not.” She repeats.

“But I obviously didn’t trust you very much.” Anakin sighs, 

“What?” Ahsoka shakes her head, “No, we’re like best friends. I considered you a brother- you trusted me with your life.”

“Not enough to tell you about Padmé.”

“You didn’t even tell Obi-Wan about Padmé.”

“He was on the council, and he was my master,” Anakin waved his hand, “He would’ve had to report me- you, on the other hand, would’ve made a perfect confidante… if only I thought you could handle it.”

“I could have handled it.” Ahsoka says, “You could’ve told me.”

“But I didn’t.” Anakin says, “Why is that?”

“I don’t know.” She mutters,

“Considering how little you actually ended up looking for me, it sort of makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“Stop that!” She cries, “Stop acting like you know what he thinks- what he thought. You aren’t him!”

“Couldn’t I be?”

“No!”

“You never saw a body, Snips.” He reminds her, “I could be alive and well, or alive at least- you’d never know.”

“There’s no way you could’ve survived, Obi-Wan told me,” Ahsoka says, “Looking for you would’ve brought me more pain than closure.”

“So why even bother? Right?” Anakin says, “You came to the temple, guns blazing ready to track me down wherever I was? All it took was one sad pep talk and a hug from Kenobi and I’m a lost cause all of a sudden? Guess I don’t mean that much to you after all.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Ahsoka exclaimed, “I wasn’t thinking rationally, I didn’t have all the information. You’re dead. Finding your body wouldn’t help anyone.”

“Unless there was nobody to find- unless an investigation would have led to me alive.”

“You’re not alive!”

“How do you know!”

“You can’t be!” Ahsoka screamed, “You can’t be alive! I felt it!”

“What did you feel?”

“The bond- the one we had from when we were masters and padawans. It’s cold. Lifeless. Dead.”

“Did you feel it die?” Anakin asks, “Did you feel my panic- of knowing I was about to die, of knowing I’d never see my wife again?”

“No.” Ahsoka admits, “I was trying to stay away from it- I hadn’t really felt it in months, not since I left.”

“So that’s it then?” Anakin says, “I’m dead.”

“I guess so.” Ahsoka replies, “I’ll never know what could’ve happened. If I hadn’t left, things might be different, but they might not be better.”

He nodded, “It was good seeing you Snips.”

She lies in her bed staring at the ceiling before she can reply. She’s sweating, and all the blankets and pillows had been kicked off the bed to the floor.

“Ahsoka?” Obi-Wan asks from outside the door, “We’ll be landing shortly.”

She curses to herself, jumping off the bed, and hastily remaking it before appearing at the door, 

“Sleep well?” he asks, and she just nods. It doesn’t feel like she’s slept at all.

“Did you figure out where exactly we’re heading?”

“Moraband.” Obi-Wan says, “Unfortunately.”

“Isn’t that-”

“The home of the sith?” Obi-Wan asks, “Exactly.”

“Should we be worried? If there was activity, maybe-”

“I assure you, there will be little to no action on this mission.” Obi-Wan says, “The council is intent on keeping me away from any.”

She just nods, and they quickly make their way to the hanger of the ship. She sets up the small, two-person ship they’ll take to the surface, as Obi-Wan chats up one of the mechanics.

After only a few minutes, they’re ready to head down.

Ahsoka hates Moraband. Maybe it’s the ancient sith force presence, or maybe it’s the awful environment that the planet is engulfed in, but she’d be happy to take off right then, and never return.

Obi-Wan guides her through the unfamiliar terrain with a map as best he can, but they both struggle, as the planet seems to recognize and dislike them.

“The epicenter shouldn’t be far now, it’s just over-” he stops short, “Oh my.”

She looks ahead of them, just down the ravine they’re walking through now is a castle-like building, or maybe it was at one point. Its foundations seem to have crumbled, pieces of debris fall off one of the higher towers as they watch.

“This isn’t on the map,” Obi-Wan says, staring at the parchment

“Does this planet get earthquakes?”

“Any planet can get earthquakes,” Obi-Wan says, “Though I suppose it’s much more unlikely here. Maybe the council mistook the unusual activity for a force presence.”

She nodded as he mused, but in the back of her mind, she wondered if the council knew there was nothing to be found on this planet, and sent them anyway.

“We’ll have to investigate anyways,” Obi-Wan says, and continues down the path towards the buildings.

She follows, and as they walk more and more of the crumbling castle comes into focus. It looks like it might have been beautiful once, it looks like it was built recently, which makes her wonder even more at how it could’ve been destroyed so quickly.

“The force-” Obi-Wan says suddenly, not stopping, “It’s strange here. Damaged almost.”

“How can the force be damaged?” Ahsoka asks,

“Something happened here,” is all Obi-Wan responds, “It looks like the council didn’t send me on a fool’s mission after all.”

He doesn’t need to add his thoughts as to whether that was intentional or not.

A few minutes of walking in silence brings them to the door of the castle. The main arch still stands, but many walls around it are crumbling or look like they might give at any moment.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Ahsoka asks as they stare into the dark hallways of the castle,

“We must investigate,” Obi-Wan says, “The force will guide us.”

The force is currently telling her to hightail it out of there, but she follows Obi-Wan anyways.

Each hall is as ruined as the last. Deep cracks run through the floors, and up the walls, Ahsoka briefly wonders if an earthquake could even do that. It seemed like the only thing affected was the castle itself.

“The whole place has been evacuated,” Obi-Wan notes, “Recently too. This whole structure isn’t old.”

“If this was an earthquake, it wasn’t a natural one,” Ahsoka says, “The land surrounding the castle was completely unaffected.”

“Yes. Whatever happened here-” He’s cut off as he arrives at a door at the end of the hallway. As they walked through, Obi-Wan pushed at every door, peeked inside the room, and continued, but as he pressed his hand to this one, it didn’t budge.

“What in the-,” Obi-Wan says, pushing harder, before holding his hand out and pressing with the force, Ahsoka joined him after a moment, and with great effort, the door shifted, opening just enough for Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to slip inside.

The room was a little underwhelming for such high security, inside was a metal table that had been warped, as if crushed under extreme pressure, on a table nearby there were fragments of shattered glass, and a strange liquid dripped onto the floor.

Obi-Wan looked around the room curiously, “This must’ve been the medical wing.”

“Maybe in my nightmares,” Ahsoka scoffs, “This looks more like a jail cell.”

“That is becoming increasingly likely,” Obi-Wan admits, dropping to the floor and picking up a broken handcuff, he looks to the table and then to the cuff, pops back up, and presses them together. The cuff fits perfectly into the broken grooves of the table.

“So this was a holding cell?” Ahsoka asks,

“Perhaps,” Obi-Wan says, “Though I can’t imagine they would release their prisoner during the earthquake, but if they were chained to the table, and it compressed like this, I’d think we’d be looking at a body right now.”

“They must’ve escaped then, maybe this whole thing was a prison break.”

“This whole thing?” Obi-Wan asks incredulously, “You think a singular person could nearly decimate a castle?”

“Well, it looks like they ripped their cuffs straight off the table. Help me find the other three?”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, but obliged her, after a minute of looking, they’d found two more cuffs, one rolled into the hall and was under some rubble, the other was caught under the door, and took much longer to get free.

They couldn’t find the last one.

Ahsoka had taken to looking into other rooms, though she sensed Obi-Wan had given up. Ahsoka didn’t care, and as she looked through the remains of another random room in this mysterious and uncomfortable castle, she wondered about the person they were looking for.

Obi-Wan had already voiced his disbelief at the idea. It was hard to fathom, this much destruction created by one person. He’d exclaimed- Even Anakin couldn’t have done this.

But she searched anyway, looking for another clue as to who had done this- when she finally saw something metallic sitting on a shelf, covered by debris and garbage.

“Finally-” She says to herself, and started brushing away what covered the last handcuff before her breath hitched, and her stomach dropped.

This wasn’t a handcuff. This was a very familiar metal arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun


	10. naked and afraid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Am i fucking up my posting schedule? Yep. It's my birthday I do what I want. Wish me happy birthday tho thanks <3  
> -Haley send a postcard, an email, anything we just want to hear from you (are you even still reading?)

Anakin isn’t found for two days after his ship crashes. Well, that’s a rough estimate, it felt much longer. 

The ship he commandeered wasn’t made to handle a personal lightning storm, and malfunctions halfway through the atmosphere, sending him straight into the desolate patch of nothing but grass and trees.

He faded in and out of consciousness after that, never waking up long enough to assess his injuries or call out for help. His limbs still felt like rubber, and he couldn’t sit up particularly well. Whatever Dooku did to him, on top of him the crash, and the collar still locked around his neck, he wasn’t in any condition to get himself out of this mess.

He was starting to think that was it when the first people showed up. He figured at least he got out and got the last laugh over Dooku. Better to die all alone on some random Outer Rim planet than in the captivity of your worst enemy.

He was pulled from the ship quickly, but the people around him seemed hazy, almost like they weren’t quite there sometimes, then they were again all of a sudden.

The drugs, Anakin reminds himself, he couldn’t trust anything he was hearing or seeing.

Not like he could understand much of what was said, everything seemed to be basic, but like it was being put through a filter.

Then all of a sudden he blinks and he’s not in the woods anymore. The smell of burning fuel and exhaust is gone, and he can’t see his ship.

It looks like the halls of healing in a way, maybe not as nice. He can't think of a reason his subconscious would imagine a run-down version of the Jedi’s hospital when someone gets his attention.

A woman, human he thinks, snaps in front of his face, mouthing words at him but all he can hear is dull drumming. 

She shakes her head at someone else standing nearby, a twi'lek woman, before they wheeled him further down the hall. 

When he finally stops, the woman continues to talk to him but the longer the less he can focus on things like her facial features. 

He doesn’t see the twi'lek woman to his left stick the needle into his shoulder, but he can feel it before he can even think of what to say, his mouth is slack and his vision is spotting till he can’t see anything at all.

“Should we call someone from the Core?” Lily asks, after he finally drifts off, “I- I don’t think we have the resources for this.”

“Would that even be worth it?” Dia says, “The core’s at least a day-long trip. Will he make it through the night?”

“I just-” Lily says, rechecking his vitals, before pulling the thin blanket further till it’s up to his neck, just below the collar they weren't able to pry off, “I wish we knew his name or how he got here… what happened to him.”

“A spice run gone wrong if I had to wager,” Dia says, crossing her arms across her chest, “It would explain the crash and his injuries. Not to mention that collar.”

“No,” Lily hums, “I don’t think so.”

“Just because you think he’s cute doesn’t mean he’s not a spice runner.”

“That’s not- I don’t-” Lily snaps to look at her friend, “Shut up!”

“It’s ok, not like it’s a crime, he is sorta cute for a human.”

Lily purses her lips, and brushes some of his hair out of his face, “He just looks so young, even with the beard and everything.”

When they’d found him most of his clothes were in pieces, his skin was pale and hot, they think he must’ve been away from civilization for a while considering the state of his hair, and patchy beard.

“You can give him a haircut if you want to,” Dia shrugs, “If he makes it to the morning, that is. But that’s usually one of the nurse’s jobs.”

“We should let him rest.” Lily decides, “Come on, let’s see if Dr. Passik needs our help.”

Lily isn’t able to check on him till the morning after next, another wave of refugee arrives and she’s swamped. His condition hasn’t improved much though, he’s still out cold, with brief moments of consciousness- but he doesn’t make much sense.

She finds her attending doctor in his room when she finally visits. 

“Dr. Myack?” She says, “What are you-”

“Just checking in on the mystery patient Dr. Frohstone.” Dr. Myack smiles, without looking up from the man’s chart. It’s almost empty, except for the area concerning his injuries, “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to poach a patient away from you or Dr. Doneeta.”

“Of course not, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-” Lily starts,

“You don’t know much about him?” Dr. Myack interrupts, 

“No, we don’t know anything about him.” Lily says, “Injuries and basic assumptions about him are all written on the chart, but that’s everything we’ve got on him.”

“Human male, approximately age twenty to twenty-five,” Dr. Myack starts reading off his chart, “Collapsed lung, mysterious burns all around his body, the timeline of wounds range from as recently as days ago to as long as a decade ago?”

Lily just nods in confirmation, and Dr. Myack plops the file back on a table next to the bed her patient lies on.

“No family? Relatives?”

“The nurses say he calls out for people- well they think it’s people he’s calling out for.” Lily says, “But his words don’t make sense like he can’t quite finish a sentence or a thought.”

“They found a lot of drugs in his system, yes?” 

“Yes.” Lily agrees, “But we also found bruising around his wrist and ankles, puncture wounds in his neck, and defensive wounds. His injuries point to a drugged captive escaping, not an addict crashing a ship.”

“You’re fond of him?” 

“What? No.” Lily stutters, blushing just a little, “I mean yes. I want him to live is all. I’m a doctor.”

Dr. Myack nods, “It’s good to connect to patients Dr. Frohstone, but I wouldn’t get attached to this one.”

“Dr. Doneeta said she would be contacting the senator who organized this whole relief program for help with him if he lasted the night though.”

“I’m sure the core will send whatever they can, but we’re still at war, Doctor,” Dr. Myack says, “And we’re losing Jedi and clones alike by the day. I don’t know what resources they’ll be able to find for some no-name crash victim.”

Lily nods and looks to her feet. She’d been so caught up in this man she’d forgotten the reality of her situation. She couldn’t save everyone, not in times like these. 

It was a miracle the senate even agreed to this whole thing, they hadn’t ordered Outer Rim relief in ages. They’d had a strong voice on their side though, they wouldn’t have gotten through without Senator-

“Pad-” A hoarse voice next to them rasped, “Pa-pa”

They both turned to the patient, in silence and he continues, “Ob-O-Ob”

And then he was quiet again like he hadn’t said anything at all.

“He does that once a day,” Lily says, “Sometimes he says ‘mom’, sometimes he says ‘papa’, other times all he can say is ‘ob’.”

“And you have no idea what he’s saying then?”

Lily just shakes her head.

“Well he hasn’t improved, but he hasn’t worsened, I think it’s time to contact our patron in the senate.”

“Of course doctor.” Lily says, “I’ll call Senator Amidala right away.”

The second she’d finished speaking she was swept off the ground. She flinched waiting for the impact of her body hitting the floor, only to feel nothing.

She was weightless. She opened her eyes, to see Dr. Myack floating just above where he’d been standing a second ago, she looked down at the floor to see her own feet hover inches above the ground.

She just floats in shock, she’s never seen anything like this before, all she can do is stare as the folder with the chart inside it floats open next to her releasing the papers to glide through the air just as weightless as her.

She’s so distracted by all the items throughout the room she only notices her patient is awake when he’s out of bed standing next to her, apparently unaffected by the lack of gravity.

She stares at him, and he stares back, coughs once then manages to whisper in a strained voice, “Senator Amidala?”

Lily doesn’t know if it’s a question or not but she nods anyway.

“Call her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> say my name say my name  
> -idk if anyone picked up that the planet the drs padme was sending were going to the same planet Anakin crashed on but if they did they didn't comment on it! Gotchu guys. it wasn't quite a plot twist but I really enjoyed dancing around the senators name
> 
> also anakin floating everyone is my favorite idk if you can tell.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want more of this hell AU let me know. Enable me.


End file.
